Remarks: New Directions in Environmental Law: A Climate of Possibility

By Lisa Heinzerling

On April 2nd, 2011, the Yale Environmental Law Association, together with a diverse group of students, academics, and practitioners, gathered for the first conference of the New Directions in Environmental Law series. Attendees critically examined environmental law as a field and imagined new directions for bringing law to bear on the changing scope and nature of environmental challenges. Reflected in the conference theme, A Climate of Possibility, such student-driven efforts embody an aspiration to look beyond logjams and political divides and to open up new value-driven possibilities in environmental law. Lisa Heinzerling, the recipient of the conference’s inaugural award, embodies the spirit of this endeavor. In her keynote address, reproduced below, Heinzerling urges the lawyers of today and tomorrow to look beyond traditional narratives to address the underlying laws and institutions that produce the infrastructure of the polluting state. Heinzerling began her speech with a quote from “Goose Music,” a passage from Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac, after the conference organizers presented to her a commemorative edition of the book in recognition of her inspiring work.